


in the aftermath

by armsofthestorm



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/F, Grief/Mourning, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-28 23:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16732785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armsofthestorm/pseuds/armsofthestorm
Summary: In the chaos after Order 66, Luminara goes to free Barriss from her Coruscant prison cell.





	in the aftermath

Looking back on it from the quiet of the cell she’d been left in, Luminara, bruised and heartsick from the losses of the last days, could barely remember the moment it all went so terribly wrong. What she knew is that she’d been on Kashyyyk, fighting off a group of battle droids back to back with Draa when a great sense of foreboding had swept over her. She felt the lightning flashes from a vicious storm raging some distance away yet. Then Draa’s comms clicked on, a short order came through, and everyhting went straight to hell.

He had turned and shot at her; Luminara had deflected the bolt, thinking it was a mistake, taken out three battle droids on the backswing. The second, third and fourth shots from Draa’s blaster had proven the first no accident. It was then Luminara had started to feel the thunder from that storm now overhead, shaking her to her bones.

As the troops who had been fighting in the next clearing appeared from out of the trees, their fire joining Draa’s, Luminara had felt a dreadful onslaught of fear and grief and betrayal— her brothers and sisters, the Jedi on star systems from here to the outer rim, all fighting for their lives against the men they had come to trust like an extension of their own will.

Even Luminara, with her bitter years’ experience on the front, and a full-fledged Jedi Master before that, could stand against these twin assaults for only so long. Sprinting for the trees under heavy fire, she misjudged a deflection, was shot twice and fell. Breathing what she thought was her last, Luminara was almost glad of it. But she had awoken nevertheless, in this sterile cell, to a galaxy much quietened, in her view at least, from the loss of its Jedi.

 

* * *

 

Time passed oddly in captivity; Luminara was no stranger to that fact. Time passed oddly in grief sometimes too. She knew this as well, all too well of late. Neither of these factors could quite account for the experience of time as it passed in that cell. It didn’t seem to take to measuring by breath or rhythm tapped against the bedframe. It was as if something swooped over her body from time to time, snatched the air from her lungs only to return it hours later, stretching out the space between fingernail and metal rail enough that it might equal the distance between a planet and her moons.

In this state, the heaviness of fear travelling throughout her body, her heart beating out a tattoo mourning her lost family, it was difficult to formulate thought. Even so, by the time she heard the tramp of guards’ boots at the end of the corridor outside, Luminara had come to several important conclusions about her current position. By the time the footsteps reached her door, she could almost see a way out. A way out not only for her, but for the woman she loved.

First, she had come to recognise the creeping presence of the dark, fear and anger roiling and creating the distortions she felt in the Force. Second, she had come to realise she was on Coruscant. Now that the dark side was palpable, overwhelmingly so, realised that it had been present on the planet of her home for much longer than the past few days. The war, the deaths of billions, the powerlessness of the Jedi and the Senate to do anything to slow the spread of chaos across the galaxy- this was the work of the dark side. The very thought chilled Luminara to her bones, but she was powerless against it. 

Third, she had remembered, with a thud and a leap of her heart so powerful as to dispel the darkness for a second. Fourth, that Barriss was on Coruscant, in all likelihood nearby. And fifth came the realisation that if she could escape the cell, if she could find her, and if they could get off planet—well, what came next didn’t bear thinking about, but it would be better than nothing. They would at least have each other.

 

* * *

 

Escape was easy enough. Luminara stood by the door to surprise the guards as they entered her cell, knocked them out, and stole a blaster—so uncivilised, said Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice in her head, and her heart twisted out a beat in mourning for him as well. She pulled herself up through the air vent before anyone could see her, and began to make her way up the building. She would need to reach the surface of the planet to find her bearings, and then, before anyone noticed her absence, to infiltrate the prison where Barriss was held and free her. There were ships under the Jedi Temple Luminara only a few people knew about; if she and Barriss could get there, they could get off planet, and the galaxy was a big place. From there, they’d have a chance.

From the roof of the prison some time later, out of breath from a rapid scaling of the fortress-like walls, Luminara paused for a moment to take stock and gather herself. She didn’t know what she’d find when she reached the cell where her former apprentice had last been held. There was first the question of whether or not Barriss would be there. While the new regime seemed chaotic and disorganised, and it was more than likely they’d left her to rot in her cell, there was always the risk that they’d seen some use for her, and taken her away somewhere for Force-knew-what purpose.

Then there was the question of how Barriss might appear if she did find her. The solemn, dutiful young woman she’d trained and then loved for so many years was long gone, she knew that much. Might she find the viciously angry version of Barriss she’d met during her arrest? Or would it be the half defiant, half contrite variant Luminara had encountered during her few visits to Barriss' cell. Maybe it would be something different entirely. Already Luminara could feel in herself deep changes as a result of all the death she’s felt these past few days. Even with her fall toward darkness, she cannot imagine Barriss would live on unaffected.

Still, the sorrow Luminara had seen on Barriss’s face during the last visit, before blasted duty called once again and sent her to ruin in the great Wroshyr forests, was what stuck with her now, much more than the anger and darkness she had sensed alongside it. Dropping down into an air vent, Luminara shook off any lingering doubt. Whatever she did find, Barriss was still worth saving. With so little light left in the galaxy—with so much of it eroded by the wars, with so few Jedi now— Luminara had, if nothing else, hope. And a great deal of resolve that this time she would not fail Barriss as she had in the past.

Moving through the upper levels of the building, Luminara could hear rushed footsteps in the corridors below her, and shouting from the guards and prisoners alike. The atmosphere was tense, turbulent. It had been similar on the streets of Coruscant, though Luminara hadn’t lingered in her journey from what had turned out to be the holding cells near the Senate buildings to the gaol. The people unsettled, perhaps subconsciously aware of the upsurge of the dark, perhaps troubled by the rapidness of the change in government, the denunciation of the Jedi as traitors, and the end of the war. The former Senator Palpatine’s face had leered off every billboard on her journey, newscasters calm voices filling her in on what she’d missed since Kashyyyk. Luminara’s blood had run cold at the sight of his now grotesque face. It was the kindly old Senator from Naboo who had been the Sith Lord that evaded them so long, pulling strings and sowing discord right under their noses. They had all been so blind, she thought. So blind, and now they were all paying for it.

As she moved down the building though, things were quieter, tension pulling over the air like the delicate skin over a pool of still water. The guards’ room on Barriss’ floor was empty of life and messy, as if it’d been abandoned in a hurry. She took up the master key the stupid guards always left on the hook beside the emergency alarm, and hurried down to Barriss’ cell. She thought she could feel her, their old connection flickering between them.

Barriss was sitting on the single bed when she opened the door, and barely looked up as Luminara entered the cell.  

“Barriss,” said Luminara, schooling her voice to her customary formality to hide the depth and breadth of her emotion. She’s here! sang the hopeful part of her spirit, she’s alive! The knot of unnameable emotion in her throat threatened to bring her to her knees.

“Master,” said Barriss, staring right through her. She looked like a shadow of her former self, afraid and dishevelled, and small, as always, in her prison clothes rather than the robes of their lives together. “What in the name of all that is good are you doing here? Are you really here at all?”

“We have to go,” said Luminara, in lieu of any of the other things she could think to say: thank the Force, I love you, come with me now and don’t you ever leave again. She held out the second blaster, and when Barriss made no move to take it from her, took her hand, gently pulling her upright.

Barriss blinked, seeming to register her presence properly at last. “Luminara?” She grabbed at her wrist hard enough for it to hurt. “What’s happened? Why does everything feel so much darker?”

Luminara cupped the side of her face in one hand, stroked her thumb over her cheekbone. “The Republic has fallen, the Jedi with it. You were right; we had lost our way. And now we’ve paid for it.”

Barriss’ face fell, if possible, further into dismay. “I didn’t want to be right,” she said. “I thought I did, but I never wanted this.”

Luminara’s hand fell away. “I know,” she said. “But we have to leave. The other prisoners seem to be keeping the guards busy upstairs, but sooner or later someone’s going to notice we’re missing.”

She pressed the blaster into Barriss’ hand, and pulled her out the door. They ran, Barriss stumbling at first, and growing more confident behind her every step. Luminara felt a swell of uneasy pride; Barriss was resilient, staggeringly so, but Luminara now worried at the cost. But there would be time for rumination and recrimination later—now, the only task was to escape.

They reached the roof in good time given Barriss’ lack of field experience, and Luminara barely needed to explain the next stages of her plan for Barriss to understand exactly what she meant.

“First we need to get to the Temple,” said Luminara, gesturing for Barriss to follow her to the parapet. “The west wing, a few levels down at least.”

“Then we take the hangar under the Temple by stealth, through that passageway Yoda showed us just before I was knighted,” Barriss continued. “Yes?”

“Exactly,” said Luminara, and smiled at her, the memory of their time together warming her to the core.

Barriss smiled back, tentatively, like it hurt her face. “Best be on our way,” she said, and swung off the side of the building. Luminara followed, the hope she’d been nursing in her chest finally beginning to take on substance.

 

* * *

 

They moved quietly through Coruscant, Barriss taking the lead as they crept through the undercity, districts Luminara barely knew, but Barriss seemed to be able to navigate without thinking. Luminara wondered, had she travelled this way often, when she was conspiring to kill all those people? Had she moved so casually then, or had she looked over her shoulder with every other breath, waiting to be discovered. Was she leading Luminara now into a trap? Luminara’s heart beat harder in her chest at the thought. Had she done the right thing in freeing Barriss before trying to get off planet?

Probably not, thought Luminara as Barriss motioned for her to cross the street that lead to the entrance of the great long, twisting series of tunnels and openings and ladders that would eventually lead them to the least of the entrances to the Temple, directly below the emergency hangar, both of them elided on every plan and map of the building Luminara had ever seen.

In the odd, abandoned industrial passageways of this part of the undercity, empty of life by Coruscanti standards, Luminara could feel Barriss' characteristically reserved presence in a Force a little more strongly.

She felt fear, of course. Luminara had been fighting a battle against her own fear, and her anger too, for longer than she wanted to admit. Grief as well. But there was little of the tendrilling influence of the dark she could feel only too strongly everywhere else; it was as if its malign influence had purged itself from Barriss the moment it made itself so vilely manifest in the world; that once Barriss had seen the true shape of her fears, had realised she too had been taken in, had been able to name them and keep them from her.

And beneath it all, Luminara fancied she could feel the same hope she harboured in herself.

“You’re thinking very loudly,” Barriss whispered as they crawled through an old drainpipe. “I promise I’m not leading you to your death at the hands of the Sith.”  

“I know that.”

“And I’m so pleased to see you,” she continued: “I thought I’d die in that cell.”

“I know,” said Luminara.

“And I know you know.” They turned a corner to come to the long ladder that lead up to the entrance. Barriss paused, and turned to face Luminara. Her face looked nearly skeletal under the sparse illumination falling from a light source too far above them, but Luminara thought she'd never looked more beautiful, or more knowing. “You probably also know I stopped believing anything you said or thought was true, for a while. But I realise now none of us were right about everything, and you always tried to do the best thing you could given the circumstances. I think that there are worse ways to lead a life, and I’m willing to trust you again.”

Luminara inclined her head in acknowledgement. “I believe I can trust you also." 

“I know,” said Barriss. “Breaking me out of prison gave the game away somewhat.”

They climbed the ladder in silence, Barriss following behind Luminara now, to open the heavy metal hatch under the hangar and climb up into the eerie darkness of the mercifully forgotten back corner of the Jedi Temple. 

They chose a ship, an old but serviceable and unobtrusive transport, by mutual silent agreement, and began to prepare for takeoff in the same comfortable, productive silence Luminara would always associate with their best moments together. Barriss checked the mechanical workings of the ship as Luminara checked on basic supplies and dusted off the interior, familiarised herself with the controls. They worked quickly. They always had, together, but in this case it seemed neither of them wanted to linger any longer than necessary in their former home which felt now so much like a mausoleum, and they were facing the night sky through the hangar doors before Luminara felt she'd caught her breath. 

 

* * *

 

Airspace over Coruscant was crowded, as ever, but Luminara’s plans of slipping beneath notice in the crowd were dashed by the time they were halfway clear of the stratosphere. One second they were looking at a clear run and a comfortable jump to hyperspace, the next a full squadron of fighters appeared out of the smog beneath them, glowing lethally in the dark.

Luminara cursed, and reached for the gunner’s controls ahead of her.

“Readying for the jump to hyperspace ASAP,” said Barriss, pre-empting her next command. “Best estimates at thirty seconds, hang on.”

Luminara pulled on the throttle and sent a volley of blasts back at the fighters. There wasn’t a chance they could outmanoeuvre them; not in a ship this old, a built for speed and endurance across distance rather than agility. There wasn’t even a chance she could outpace them, not at such close range. But there was a chance, Force willing, that they could make it to hyperspace before their shields were hit enough times to truly cripple them. And then they’d be safe enough, until it came time to make their next move.

The transport shuddered as it took fire from two of the ships. Luminara tried to coax a last tiny bit of speed out of the already strained acceleration, just to give them the edge of distance from their pursuers, but thank the Force, shields were reporting minimal damage. She tried basic evasive manoeuvres, moving the ship side to side and up and down, knowing that even with the state of the art targeting systems the Republic, hitting a movingly target in a firefight was still hugely difficult.

The next hit was to the port side thrusters; shield integrity down to forty percent.

“Exactly twelve seconds to hyperspace,” Barriss reported. The next to shot was on the starboard thrusters—the fighters were flanking them—“eleven, ten.”

“If I have to go now,” said Luminara, as the shields took another volley of hits to starboard: not critical yet, but getting there. “I’ll be glad you were with me.”

Barriss took a moment to stare at her, surprise evident on every part of her face. “You know how I feel,” she said, with a rueful smile.

The ship shuddered again, and Luminara took her hand. “I love you too,” she said as she intertwined their fingers.

“Two more seconds!” said Barriss, knuckles squeezed pale between Luminara’s own, holding on for dear life. The shields over the rear of the craft came away with the next hit; Luminara’s breath left her lungs in anticipation of the worst. “One!”

The ships behind them flashed out of existence.


End file.
